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Original poster

How big is your mortgage?

59 replies

DumbledoresGirl · 24/09/2006 13:03

I know this is a cheeky question to ask and I have thought long and hard about it as I know I wouldn't want to answer this question online. However....

dh and I have just been filling in our tax returns form. We have what many would consider a very healthy income. Yet we struggle monthly to make ends meet and I am at a lost to know why. We think it might be our mortgage and I am wondering whether our mortgage really is so much more than other people's. Now I can't ask my firends and neighbours so maybe I can ask Mumsnet.

Without mentioning figures, is anyone prepared to say what percentage of their income goes on the mortgage? Or put it another way, what size mortgage did you have based on your income. Not explaining this very well! OK, I will come clean and say that when we took out our mortgage, it was 4 times dh's salary (I don't earn).

OP posts:
Blandmum · 24/09/2006 18:13

shall I tell you my 'I'm a fuckwit story' regarding out morgage?

We were buying the house and putting down a lot of money onto it, from the sale of the previous house. We had put the money into a high interest acount, and transfered it into the building society at the last monet. I went in , cooly tossed them my card and said, 'I'd like a check for 'large amount' made out to my solicitors from this account please', and smiled smugly.

The woman looked at the card, waited a heartbeat and sai, 'That is your Sainbury's club card dear'

She must have thought I was a total idiot.

That will teach me to try to be post

Gobbledigook · 24/09/2006 18:14

Ditto www.

On a good/average month (dh is commission based and I'm self employed), the mortgage payment is about 1/5 of our household income. Our monthly income can fluctuate and the odd month it goes down so then it's obviously a higher proportion.

Our mortgage is capital repayment and we still pay into endowments that we had when we only paid interest only so we do pay out quite a lot in mortgage/endowment/pension/council tax.

Like you, and like www, we have a healthy income but still have months where we have to seriously reign in (like now!) - it's cos we spend too much. We just went through our credit card for last month and there were loads of 'extras' on there - eating out (a lot), cinema trips, complete set of new tyres, new trampoline, shoes, clothes, bags (er, that'll be me then )....

Twiglett · 24/09/2006 18:14

hehhehehehehehe

you should have argued with her and then stonked out

Gobbledigook · 24/09/2006 18:16

Agree iota - we took our mortgage out in about May and it was 3.7x our joint income. Now it's about 3x.

We plan to stay here a loooong time - so the payments should become less and less signficant over time.

Gingerbear · 24/09/2006 18:18

lol martianbishop - I think I remember you telling that tale before. (Still v funny)

Tutter · 24/09/2006 18:21

when we first got this mortgage it was about 7 x our joint incomes !!!

we've paid it down a lot and it is now about 1.5 x dh's income

Posey · 24/09/2006 18:22

OOh interesting question!
When we bought this place, at just the "right" time 10 years ago, we based it on dh's salary alone as I was due to give up work to have dd.
Anyway then it was about 1/3 of his take home pay (I think). Now due to a change in jobs and promotion it is about 1/7 of our income. We would dearly love to upgrade our home, buy something bigger in this area but as I said we bought just before a housing boom, and we would actually struggle to buy our own flat at the current market price (we live in a "trendy" part of London.)
So consequently now we actually have a pretty big disposable income, and are at present saving quite a bit.

WideWebWitch · 24/09/2006 18:22

pmsl at Sainsbury's club card! and ha ha at Iota's shaky old hands. Even if we get a mortgage now I'll be sixty bloody five before it's over. Typed my bank story there and decided you had to be there really.

ProfYaffle · 24/09/2006 18:23

We don't have a mortgage either. We were 'fortunate' enough for dh to get critically ill a couple of years ago, critical illness insurance paid off the mortgage. I'd rather have our (admittedly tiny) mortgage though, even though dh is currently fine.

Tinker · 24/09/2006 18:23

Currently if approx 1/2 of joint income. But will soon go up to about 2.3 x joint so still ok

Judy1234 · 24/09/2006 18:32

Ddg, if it's not clear where the money is going have you looked at his pay slips and the bank statements and all bills and just checked exactly where everything is going? It's possible there's a mistake somewhere or something. It's worth checking very closely.

Bozza · 24/09/2006 18:46

When we bought our house we were both working full time and I think our mortgage was 2.5x joint. Now I work 3 days and DH full time and I think it is under 2x joint now. As in our salaries have increased (well DH's to be fair but going part time and having two maternity leaves - I was pg when we bought - are not great career moves let's face it).

SueW · 24/09/2006 18:53

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at OP's request.

littlerach · 24/09/2006 18:57

Ours is just over 3x DH's salsry.
Some months there are extras that eat away at our income though.
We always find that it's the other bits that cost so much too, like life insrance and all that.
Think I'll be 50 when we pay it off.

Original poster
DumbledoresGirl · 24/09/2006 19:15

Some points:

Mercy - we do not use the phone much. Yes we have a girnormous electricity bill - about £200 a month - but that is because it is our only form of energy - heating lighting, everything and we know it is very costly, hence hopefully getting central heating soon which will not be powered by electricity! We too live in an old house but with excellent windows but huge drafty fireplaces and no heating at all in some rooms - oh boy I am not looking forward to the winter again!

Iota - yes it is still early days for our mortgage as we only started it last year, although that alone is frustrating as I took out my first mortgage 15 years ago. People like MB make me green with envy! Anyway, if we can't pay off the mortgage early, I will be 65 by the time it is paid off. Does that make you feel better Twiglett?

Xenia - I do check the bank statements each month and can't see anything obvious wrong, although dh's owrk involves a lot of expenses being paid out and then refunded, so it is hard to know exactly what is our personal money being spent and what is going to be refunded.

Sometimes I think things will get better when I go back to work but then I wonder who I am kidding. After all, when I go back to work, I will have to pay childcare, I will want a cleaner, I will hope for better holidays, we need to save for the children's further education, the house needs everything doing to it, blah, blah, blah. Somehow, I don't see there being extra money to pay off the mortgage with.

OP posts:
bubblerock · 24/09/2006 19:16

No mortgage here either thankfully - only because of moving further north and buying at the right time. Our first mortgage was 100% though and only £28,000 8 years ago and we were scared to have that responsibility! lol

NotAnOtter · 24/09/2006 19:35

400k and been much bigger

mumblechum · 24/09/2006 19:45

Ours was (7 yrs ago) about 5xdh's salary (I took afew months off at the time). Now it's about 1.4x joint incomes, so not too bad. It's gone down from £3,500 pm (ouch!) to about £2kpmonth, but we don't feel any better off, even tho' we don't live at all lavishly (I'd say quite frugally), it just goes on boring stuff like roof repairs.

AngelaChill · 24/09/2006 19:46

It's 40% of DH's salary and makes my eyes water.
I bought my first house for 4k in 1987 after the first big housing market crash and unfortunately we've had to buy this one at the peak of the bubble. Just waiting for the market to crash again before we trade up.

NotSoUselessMum · 24/09/2006 20:56

25% of DH's, plus I work p/t and we (DH) still haven't learnt how to prioritise.

not for long though. we need to move pretty sharpish, crap area with even more crappy schools, so I predict it will be smth like 4x.

TitianRed · 24/09/2006 21:15

Are you able to switch mortgage lender? After our period of being tied to the original lender expired we switched to an 'offset' mortgage with Intelligent Finance (if.com). My DH's salary and savings go into the mortgage account. The amount you pay in interest on your mortgage each month depends on how much you have in your account. We have brought down the amount we have left to pay dramatically, as a result. It might be worth looking into.

sarahhal · 24/09/2006 21:23

Ours is 25% of our joint monthly income but if we hadn't remortgaged to pay off other debts then built a stupid big extension it would have been half that and we could be thinking about paying it off. All for a big kitchen and a room each for the boys!!

Original poster
DumbledoresGirl · 24/09/2006 22:02

Dh is not keen on the offset mortgages - I can't remember why. But anyway, at the moment, we have no savings and no ability to save to offset against the loan so it is a bit irrelevant to us.

5x salary makes my eyes water!

OP posts:
Yorkiegirl · 24/09/2006 22:08

Message withdrawn

Original poster
DumbledoresGirl · 24/09/2006 22:08

YG

Give me the mortgage any day.

OP posts:
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